Nicholas Chopin's hopes were not frustrated; for on October 1, 1810, he was appointed professor of the French language at the newly-founded Lyceum in Warsaw, and a little more than a year after, on January 1, 1812, to a similar post at the School of Artillery and Engineering.
The exact date when Nicholas Chopin and his family settled in Warsaw is not known, nor is it of any consequence.

We may, however, safely assume that about this time little Frederick was an inhabitant of the Polish metropolis.

During the first years of his life the parents may have lived in somewhat straitened circumstances.

The salary of the professorship, even if regularly paid, would hardly suffice for a family to live comfortably, and the time was unfavourable for gaining much by private tuition.

M.de Pradt, describing Poland in 1812, says:-- Nothing could exceed the misery of all classes.